1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to support of carriers, substrates, and carriers with substrates, respectively. Particularly they relate to buffering of carriers, substrates and carriers with substrates, respectively. Specifically embodiments of the present invention relate to an apparatus for supporting a plurality of carriers or substrates and a method of operating an apparatus for supporting a plurality of carriers or substrates.
2. Description of the Related Art
In many applications, it is necessary to deposit thin layers on a substrate. Representative examples include (but are not limited to) applications involving: semiconductor and dielectric materials and devices, silicon-based wafers, flat panel displays (such as TFTs), masks and filters, energy conversion and storage (such as photovoltaic cells, fuel cells, and batteries), solid-state lighting (such as LEDs and OLEDs), magnetic and optical storage, micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and nano-electro-mechanical systems (NEMS), micro-optic and opto-electro-mechanical systems (NEMS), micro-optic and optoelectronic devices, transparent substrates, architectural and automotive glasses, metallization systems for metal and polymer foils and packaging, and micro- and nano-molding.
For many of these applications, particle generation during processing, such as deposition, structuring, or the like, has to be considered and particles, which are not desired on a substrate, may negatively influence subsequent processing steps. Further, particularly for production of mass products, throughput is of increasing importance. Accordingly, providing the substrates to be processed should be conducted as efficient as possible. Thus, buffering of substrates to be processed needs to be improved.